Sunday, October 5, 2008
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Sunday, August 3, 2008
It's a cliche to have a teenager scream at their parents, "You just don't understand me!!!" This is a situation I never understood as I grew up. I never really felt understood. I wasn't even sure what it meant to be understood as a person. I didn't think that being understood was something so important to have a tantrum over.
Still, though I wasn't understood, I could still get along with people... some people. Just as people don't understand me, I don't understand other people. I think know enough to be socially pleasant with strangers, but it's not from what I'd call an understanding, more of a, "Oh, I've seen this pattern before-- the correct response to it is this:...". I absolutely don't understand what encourages people to chit-chat. I don't know what they get out of talking about nothing. And that isn't to say that all of my conversations are of remarkable substance, but at least they're interesting to me and those that I have them with (i.e. my friends). But when a stranger starts talking to me about something so benign that I can't help but not to have an opinion on it, I get rather awkward, and I'm sure I seem rather dickish as I struggle to think of something to respond with as well as a way to exit the conversation.
My good friends of more than a decade understand me the best, but they don't have a deep understanding of me... And I don't feel I have a deep understanding of them either... They tend to be a rather insulated bunch. In the past I've tried connecting with them on a deeper level, but they were evasive a squirmy-- I suppose they thought sharing old stories and feelings was too intimate... and I became fine with that, because, I think, we know each other well enough to know that we wouldn't connect on that deeper level.
I started hanging out on internet forums and I was happy to find a different kind of people. These people liked being nice to each other and opening up. These people had intellectual curiosities that they'd explore with each other. Most of them (particularly on the forums) were geeks. I became sucked in.
Then I found out that even most of these guys were too nice for my tastes. Then there were the ones that were just needlessly mean. And still, a bunch of others had a sense of humor I couldn't appreciate. I found people I made friendships with, but again, there was a lack of deep understanding.
Eventually, I wound up at EFX and I found several people who reflected what I saw in myself... Not everything, but more than I've seen elsewhere. Closest thing I've come to finding kindred spirits. I started to believe (though it was more subconscious) that I've found people that could truely understand me.
I didn't consciously realize that until I lost a couple of them. I don't think I ever knew exactly how isolated I was, nor how great it was to have some people on my side, almost exactly in step with me.... It never really played out that way, but it felt tantalizingly close. As if I just waited just a little bit longer, everything would just click.
It seems that ship has passed though. I suppose we weren't as good of friends as I thought we were. Perhaps what I thought was reflection was actually projection. So while I probably feel more alone than I ever have, it isn't a huge deal as I refuse to be they type of person that needs someone else to be okay. I'm more concerned with how much my perception seems to change in regards to the people I deal with... Just goes to show how much I don't understand other people
.
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Friday, July 4, 2008
Happy birthday, America!
Woo! Two-hundred and thirty-two! Blow out your candles!
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Friday, July 4, 2008
Here's a video of David Hewlett making a sincere public apology.
The volume was recorded real low. so you may have to do some tricky things to hear it. I didn't see another, louder, version of this.
And this is the video he is apologizing for.
ACTING!
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Tuesday, July 1, 2008
The created of the PvP comic created a new character, LOLBAT. His debut strip is here:
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Tuesday, June 17, 2008
Violent Femmes is a band I got into middle school. My friend's older brother would play the CD's while he played Daggerfall (and I sat there and watched him play). I like the songs a good deal, but sometimes it's a little embarrassing to talk about them to other people. There's a definite tone of high-school loser running through many of their songs... Sexual frustration, whinniness, and even misogyny pepper the music, though there are still songs that are light and sweet. Humor is found in many of their songs as well.
They're just a three piece band and I think most of the talent lays with the bassist, and many of the songs are bass heavy. I'm not sure I can think of another band that has bass solos in their songs. Another interesting characteristic in much of their music is their way of playing sloppy, but they do it in a way it really works.
With the tone of sexual frustration that's been hummin' around EFX lately, I decided to make a tribute to it by posting the trouble-with-womens songs by the Violent Femmes.
Like I said, I'm so use to listening to the albums at a whole, so it's really hard for me to just pick and choose songs. I'm probably gonna put way to many here to listen to at one sitting, but I hope you make multiple trips back to listen to them all.
The first is "Kiss Off". One of my favorite songs by the Violent Femmes. I haven't watched the video, but the song is there.
Up next we have "Add It Up". This one almost vulgar about it's sexual frustration. But it's one of my favorites, though that could be said about pretty much any of their songs. However, this is one of the songs I actively learned the lyrics to. I love the way it builds up.
Here we have "Promise". It's a dirty-sounding song; a little dark and with humor as well. Ignore the Naruto.
This song is "Please Do Not Go". It's a lighter song than the others. Still kinda sad though. Big bass solo in it.
This next one, "Confessions", is pretty dark and deep. It's more about many things plaguing one person, loneliness being one of them.
The next song, "Prove My Love", has a more light and hopeful tone, though things still ain't going well with the ladies.
This is a really cool bad-mood sloppy-sounding song. It's about a girl screwing him over. It's named, "To The Kill".
Damn, I can't find an easy way to let you guys listen to "He Likes Me". It's a song about a guy who's in love with a girl that only friends with him, and how her new boyfriend likes him, but he doesn't like him back. Much lighter tone and fun word use.
This next song is entitled "Breakin' Up". I've never seen the actual music video for it. I've always listened to the demo of the song packed as an extra on one of my CDs.. sounds a little strange to me.
This song, "Gimme The Car", is another dirty-sounding song and it isn't very nice to women. It's probably the darkest of the lot. The best version of it I can find is a crappy live recording, and you can hear a girl or prepubescent boy singing along with it. Weird either way.
The last song will be "Blister in the Sun", which I am pretty sure is about masturbation. I suppose the list wouldn't be complete about it, but it's my least favorite Violent Femmes song, which is kinda funny because it's the one song people might actually know already.
I suppose that's more than enough for now. I wish I could burn you all CDs so you could listen to it all when you folks actually have the time.
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Wednesday, June 11, 2008
I like being a tough guy. I can handle physical pain better than most folks, but there are something that just turn me into a little bitch. Heat is one of them. I complain and whine to no end if it's too hot. Hunger is another. If I'm hungry, I am soooo irritable. In general, I can temper myself, but if things are already rubbing me raw, hunger will tend to make me go nuts.
And so today... Not only did I have to leave for work about ten minutes before dinner was done, I left my gorram lunch behind! No food for this ogre. I was also out of pocket change so I couldn't snack on stuff from the vending machines.
Thoughts swirled in my head, and my hunger magnified every annoying, evil bit in them, leaving me a little riled, but more so depressed, actually.
I'm still pissed off from work last friday when my boss was being a total douchbag. He's ungrateful as well as insane.
I also thought of a dream I had before coming into work.
I dreamed of a girl I never met before. A girl I've been talking at a very irregular pace since November or so. A girl I got in contact with on a online dating sight. A girl who lives only an hour away from me. A girl who, at just about every comparison, is a perfect match for me. A girl who has evaded my attempts to ask her out, but never reject them. A girl who, after I finally confronted her on her evasiveness, said that she didn't know what she wanted. A girl who, after a sizable communication breaks (and I presumed that we went our separate ways), contacts me again.
This is a girl that I don't really know.
My dream took place in an unfamiliar location, like a basement or dorm room or something. There were several people there including the Girl. I don't think I knew any of these people, but they were suppose to be there... I think one of them was playing Bioshock.
So this was pretty exciting for me. This was the first time I got to actually spend time with the Girl... To see if there's any chemistry. But it was kinda weird, but I didn't think it was too weird in the dream.... She would be a dude when there were other people in the room. And not just her maled up, but, like, looked like a completely different person.. Different body type.. hight hair and eye color.. complexion. I noted that it was unusual, but it didn't bother me much since I knew it was her. And when the other folks left the room for some reason, she was herself.
She was playful and chatty, like in our messages. And she even decided to make us a relationship, which I wasn't expecting, since she didn't seem keen on it before. I was also very unsure about the idea, since we only just met.
----as a note, this particular interaction seems to well up from my suspicions that she thinks my intentions aren't as innocent as they appear, which is why I'm kept at an arms length----
And the dream wasn't more than that... Just hanging out.
There's a very troublesome theme when I fall for a girl, which is that I tend to fall for what I want the girl to be, rather than who she actually is. So I've tried to be particularly guarded here.
So, like I was saying, I'm at work, I'm hungry, I'm angry, I'm also a little sleepy as I didn't get enough sleep, and I'm thinking about this whole situation.
I've gotten to the point where I just want to say "fuck it" and move on, but there's nothing for me to move on to. The messages are fine enough... they don't really take up much energy, and they can't stop me from pursuing another girl... but there are no other girls. She's the only person I've seen in a year that I can consider to have even some possible compatibility with me.
I try to leave the ball in her court. Let her make the moves if she wants moves to be made. But why doesn't she? I don't get it. I feel like she's waiting for something to happen.. for someone to do something... It seems like she's stuck on something, and I can't tell what it is.
Still in my state at work, these thoughts turn towards a mild depression on top of my angry, and I start asking silly, yet still deeply-wounding, self-mutilating questions like, "Why am I so undesirable?"
Then I ate Wendy's and was feeling much better. Still, there's still this ever-present, gnawing craving for the love of another. And it's perturbed in a bitter sweet way when I see a friend do silly things with his girlfriend, when people write about how great their significant other is, when people speak of how lonely they are, when Queen's Somebody to Love pops up on the playlist, and especially when President Roslin finally says 'I love you' to Admiral Adama. I'm so hungry.
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Wednesday, June 11, 2008
On Monday morning, I actually remembered that I needed to make some rice so I could take it into work that night. I went to set up the rice steamer, only to find a sort of rice soup, created by a half-week of neglect.
Ya see, a half-week earlier, I was gonna do the same thing. Get my rice ready (put the rice and water in the steamer) and set the timer to start it an hour and a half before I go to work. This way I had some nice, fresh rice for work. Unfortunately, we had a crazy-ass storm blow through here which knocked out the power. The good thing is that my roommate noticed it and set the steamer back up for me. Then the power got knocked out again and he forgot about it that time.
I got up only to find water and uncooked rice in the steamer, so I grumbled and went to work riceless.
So a half-week later, I open the steamer to find that no one removed the water and uncooked rice from before. There was a papery film over the top of the brew, which seemed to house some gas, but I didn't think much of it. After all, I sniffed the sludge and didn't smell anything! So I told the steamer to steam and I took a shower.
In my shower I considered the idea that the rice was fermenting in there. I figure that, at worse, the rice will taste funny and I'll throw it away.
As I left the shower, I could smell something strange. "Perhaps, a roommate is cooking something," I reasoned. I make my way downstairs to discover a horrible smell was emanating from the steamer. I quickly turn the steamer off and open the lid to see what was of the rice. The rice actually looked pretty okay, except for a small brown patch, but there was such as stench!
I decided to go downstairs and goof around on my computer until the air cleared.
I could smell the demon rice from the basement.
The smell was not going away.
The smell was magnificently putrid. It had an extremely sour smell combined with the odor of particularly rancid feces.
I decided to take a more proactive role in the removal of the Hellstink, so I went up stairs. At the same time, my roommates walk in the front door with groceries, howling at the unholy, nose-raping smell.
We turned off the central air, opened all the windows on the floor, and I put the tainted rice in a bag with the intent of having it exorcised. I end up just placing it in the front garden for the time being.
After an hour or so, most of the stink was gone. The fourth roommate came home and asked if someone shit in the microwave.
I was hungry, but the others couldn't stomach the idea of eating with the Hellstink filling their nostrils. I was able to convince one to go get gyros with me, though he only had a hummus.
Leaving the townhouse was boon as much as a bane. While it was good to be out of the foul essence for a while, I had lost the sensory adaptation I grew, so the place now seemed to smell worse than before we left.
Eventually I went to work. The Hellstink was actually mostly gone by the time I got home again.
Oh, if you're wondering about the title, "Underdark" is the name that seemed to stick as the moniker for our townhouse.
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Movies To Be on the Lookout For
Tuesday, June 3, 2008
First, I give you, Mongol.
Mongol - Theatrical Trailer
How freakin' sweet is that? A movie about Genghis Khan. I doubt the heavy guitar rift will actually be in the movie, but I sure enjoyed it in the trailer.
And then there's also Dragonball. I've heard murmurs of a Dragonball movie for quite some time, but then never amounted to anything. However, IMDB here lists a pretty complete cast so I guess it's for realzies this time.
I got into Dragonball and Dragonball Z rather late (in high school) and I grew to really like them both. DBZ ended up being more than a string of cool (and too-often drawn out) fights. I ended up really enjoying the dialogue and the themes of friendship, pureness, and the power of will. The preceding Dragonball was an imaginative, fun adventure.
The movie takes place in a story arc in the middle of the original Dragonball series. So that means, a little disapointingly, that there will be no super saiyans in this movie.
Also, the casting seems spoty. The writer wrote some kinda interesting stuff.. It's produced by Stephen Chow (of Shaolin Soccer and Kung Fu Hustle). Buffy's Spike plays Lord Piccolo. And Chow Yun-Fat plays Master Roshi. However, the guy playing Goku looks like a total douche. The others I have bad feelings for too.
There's a picture at Kotaku of Goku standing in front of a car, looking like he should be in Dawson's Creek or something.
There's a Wikipedia on it.
There are several blogs.
And here's a video of James Marsters pimpin' the movie.
Hrm. I dunno.
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Sunday, May 25, 2008
Now here I am with the original intent of my last entry: to fawn over my five-year-old goddaughter, who will be referred to as Monkey. She's the closest thing I have to actual offspring, unfortunately she and her family live 12-14 hours away, which makes visits obviously difficult.
My main way to keep in touch is through a blog her mother maintains, so a good chunk of this entry will be paraphrasing hers.
*ahem*
A week or two back Monkey and her mother were in the living room. Mom was flipping trough the TV Guide when Monkey stops her in order to try to read a word she saw ("Cops"). After a few tries with more of a long O sound in it, Mom told her the correct pronunciation of the word and explained that a 'cop' is a synonym for 'police officer'.
---For those who might not know Cops is a very old, still running show that's nothing but a camera crew following on-duty police officers. I heard that the purpose of the program is to show what police officers have to deal with. (Haha... The 'show history' link at cops.com just links to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COPS_(T...eries))---
Mom was surprised with Monkey asked to see it, but obliged reasoning that there's something to be learned in it even if it's just as an window into the outside world. Mom also figured that Monkey would quickly grow bored of it and ask to have it switched back to the children's programming that was already on.
They watched as bad people acted nasty and the police arrest them. The whole time with Mom commenting and narrating. Monkey didn't get bored and kept asking to keep watching.
The episode ended, Mom content in a lesson taught:
You probably aren't a good person if you're getting into trouble like that. If you're a bad person, then you can wind up in jail or worse.
After it, they went about their day as usual.
(For the next bit, I'll quote directly from Mom's blog...)
| That night at bed, she looks at me and asked "Mom why are there bad people?" And i knew it was related to what we had seen on Cops so i told her "bad people are people that are surrounded by bad circumstances, but instead of making good decisions they make bad ones. They dont start out bad people, but they become bad people because they become hurt and angry"
With the most wisdom i've seen in this childs eyes she looks at me and says "Like Anakin mommy?" |
"ABSOLUTELY like Anakin," replied Mom, who was wonderfully shocked by the connection made. Mom went on to summarized Anakin's tale, to reinforce the connection made. How he started off good, but made bad decisions along the way, and how sad things happened to him, and how he started listening to the wrong people. That Anakin eventually destroyed himself.
"but his friend tried to kill him, Mom" Monkey understandably countered.
Mom explained that Obi-Wan wanted to save Anakin. Have him turn from his evil ways and face justice, but Anakin believed he was too far gone and forced Obi-Wan to destroy Anakin.
Monkey then became worried that bad situations created bad people. Quickly, Mom wanted to reassure Monkey that people in bad situations don't have to turn bad. That they can always start making good decisions. She cited Jesus as someone who always had bad stuff happen to him, yet he loved everyone, even those that would hate him. And Mom said that she and Dad have been in bad situations, and have even made bad decisions, but "the important thing is that we ended up making GOOD decisions and now we're here with you and we love you, so there's nothing to worry about"
Then Monkey started to stall for time because she didn't want to go to bed... Heh.
I was completely smitten by this story. I love that even this early, she's recognizing good and bad. I love that, to her, Good is the natural state. I love that she shows concern outside of herself. I love that in a long trillogy of special effects, she notices the struggle of good and evil. This kid is smart, amazing, and I'm just too damn proud.
And it really sucks that I can't be there all the time.
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Sunday, May 25, 2008
I have always liked kids, which I suppose I could've picked up from my dad. He was always quick to try to make a child laugh. He'd smile and make faces at the baby in the next booth. He'd be quick to wrestle and tickle with the six-year-olds at family gatherings. And I'm largely the same way. There's something powerful in a child's smile.
More than that, as I grew older I saw the potential in children. With them lays infinite possibility, and the thought of shaping that for the better appeals to me. If you nurture and guide them, they can grow up be great people. That isn't to say it's the parents that makes a person great, as there are great people with terrible parents, but we might as well help them out as much as we can.
I'm not sure if it's arrogant to think this, but I think I have a much to offer a developing mind. I will encourage discovery, reason, open-mindedness and virtue. I will make sure they know how to have a good time, but also know how to follow the rules. I will keep an eye on their ambition and try to stave off the extreme lack of general motivation that I'm plagued with.
I am very proud of the person that I am-- Knowledgeable, but innocent(someone who knows me personally described me as 'innocent'). I accept the world as ugly as it is... I wander within it's seedy ranks, but I do not let it change me. So I suppose there can be a virtue in stubbornness (or is it call "resoluteness" at that point?). Still, I'm far from perfect. Nor do I think I'm terribly special within the wide eye of the world.
Yet, I think that if more people shared some of the attitudes I have... If more people were skeptical whenever someone makes an absolute statement.... If more people were willing to believe that they could learn something from someone or something else... If more people would admit that there is always room for improvement in themselves... If more people were good for it's own sake, instead of reacting to reward or punishment... If more people were willing to make sacrifices for the greater good...
...well, then, I think this world would be a much better place... and I think the way to do that is to teach our children well.
Hrm.. That went longer than expected. It was just suppose to be a little bit of background before I wrote about something else. I guess I'll just turn that into another entry.
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Recent History, Starting With the Near Future
Saturday, May 17, 2008
It's been a while, but maybe I can squeeze out an entry before I get this weekend started, which should be pretty busy. At the moment it's 8:18 ante meridian and I need to be showered and at my parent's house at noonish so we can all take a trip to West Virginia to attend my sister's graduation ceremony.
This, of course, is coming off right after work (I was at least able to watch the latest Battlestar Galatica). I'm not sure when I'll sleep next. I hope it won't interfere with the usual hanging out and gaming that happens on Saturday nights. Then again, I'll need to be careful with my time since I get to attend this one time dealie at Bethesda Softworks, which should be fun, but I don't think I can be any more specific than that (that goes from ten to four).
Yesterday morning as I was doing my usual EFXin', I saw Bebbet get on Live via WLM, so I fired up my 360 and invited him to chat. His controller kept crapping out, I'm mumbley, and I had some trouble processing his accent (which, selfishly, didn't coincide with the voice I had already given him in my head), so we had a fairly riveting conversation. Okay, perhaps I was a wee bit sarcastic, but I thought the whole clumsy experience was pretty exciting. That's the closest I've come to having a real-life conversation with anyone at EFX2. Hopefully we'll get to game together sometime soon... Mayhaps in a GTAIV party.
Yesterday, I also got paid, as I expected. However, there was something unexpected in this fated event: It was only half as much as it should've been. I went to work last night riled, and I eventually come to find out that they knew I had vacation, I needed to fill a separate sheet to actually use my vacation hours and get paid! Marvelous!
I was pretty angry for the first few hours of the night. I mean, I guess this was my fault, but I've got paid for vacations before and I don't remember filling out timesheets before, but, then again, I can have a pretty terrible memory about things. Man, I was upset. I just wanted to break shit. Everything I looked at would give me a sudden flash of some way to break it, then I'd have to talk myself out of it, only to lay my eyes on something else that could be broken.
I'll still be able to get paid for that week, it's just that it won't show up until I get my next paycheck (or, should I use cheque to not offend? Heh heh. The spell check has a problem with cheque). And that's a problem since I've have a car and student loan payment due next week.
I was smoldering and grumpy for a while. I began mellowing out at lunch, but I got the wrong order and that spiked my rageometer. A friend was being super nice and sharing his food with me, and I just can't stay mad when someone feeds me.
Ugh, this sucks, but it isn't the end of the world. I'm sure I can borrow a hundred or two from my parents this weekend, or even perhaps a roommate, but I already owe people money. I hate being indebted to them.
Post script:
Girls confound me.
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Wildly Popular 'Iron Man' Trailer To Be Adapted Into Full-Length Film (and more)
Saturday, April 19, 2008
I about pissed myself when I read the titiular headline at The Onion today. I sure do love that trailer. Here's the video to go with it.
Wildly Popular 'Iron Man' Trailer To Be Adapted Into Full-Length Film
And while I'm at it, here's a couple more ONN videos...
Ninja Parade Slips Through Town Unnoticed Once Again
Study: Multiple Stab Wounds May Be Harmful To Monkeys
I understand that there were some people that thought the last video were real and was accordingly outraged.
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Tuesday, April 1, 2008
Today is the last day Stephen Colbert's portrait will hang in the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, DC. After much procrastinating, a friend and I hopped on the metro yesterday morning to go see it in person. A pretty good day.
We didn't stay in the NPG for long, but I did get to see a bust of George Washington if he were a Roman Emperor. The concept seemed pretty ridiculous to me.. And hilarious. I need to have a bust commisioned of myself as a Roman emperor.
And since the NPG is about a half-block from chinatown, we all had some lunch. Although DC's chinatown seems weird since I've been there last.. Now it's almost like an amusement park.. Little of it seemed authentic anymore. There was one strip that had a: Ruby Tuesdays, Chipotle, McDonalds, Fuddruckers, California Tortia, and a few other big, nothing-to-do-with-china franchises... But since it was chinatown, they all had their signs in chinese too. How novel!
We found one of the low-key places to dine. It was good. The whole outting was good.
EDIT: Here's the story leading up to why the portrait is where it is.
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Sunday, March 16, 2008
I hate it when I get his way, but I get pretty envious of those who get to be touched.
Yesterday I was at a party with some friends an even more non-friends. I've been up all day moving, so I stood there sleepily and chatted as others drank away. I couldn't help but to be distracted by the couples who lovingly stayed with eachother the whole night.. Toying with each other's hair and clothing... Stealing little kisses from each other... Hugging... They're so comfortable with the other... and happy. I want that... I've never had that.
I'm feeling better than I was last night, now that I've gotten some sleep, but it still sucks.. Ever present, if ignorable.
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Wednesday, March 12, 2008
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080312/...n_bathroom
| WICHITA, Kan. - Authorities are considering charges in the bizarre case of a woman who sat on her boyfriend's toilet for two years — so long that her body was stuck to the seat by the time the boyfriend finally called police.
Ness County Sheriff Bryan Whipple said it appeared the 35-year-old Ness City woman's skin had grown around the seat. She initially refused emergency medical services but was finally convinced by responders and her boyfriend that she needed to be checked out at a hospital. "We pried the toilet seat off with a pry bar and the seat went with her to the hospital," Whipple said. "The hospital removed it." Whipple said investigators planned to present their report Wednesday to the county attorney, who will determine whether any charges should be filed against the woman's 36-year-old boyfriend. "She was not glued. She was not tied. She was just physically stuck by her body," Whipple said. "It is hard to imagine. ... I still have a hard time imagining it myself." He told investigators he brought his girlfriend food and water, and asked her every day to come out of the bathroom. "And her reply would be, `Maybe tomorrow,'" Whipple said. "According to him, she did not want to leave the bathroom." The boyfriend called police on Feb. 27 to report that "there was something wrong with his girlfriend," Whipple said, adding that he never explained why it took him two years to call. Police found the clothed woman sitting on the toilet, her sweat pants down to her mid-thigh. She was "somewhat disoriented," and her legs looked like they had atrophied, Whipple said. "She said that she didn't need any help, that she was OK and did not want to leave," he said. She was reported in fair condition at a hospital in Wichita, about 150 miles southeast of Ness City. Whipple said she has refused to cooperate with medical providers or law enforcement investigators. Authorities said they did not know if she was mentally or physically disabled. Police have declined to release the couple's names, but the house where authorities say the incident happened is listed in public records as the residence of Kory McFarren. No one answered his home phone number. The case has been the buzz of Ness City, said James Ellis, a neighbor. "I don't think anybody can make any sense out of it," he said. Ellis said he had known the woman since she was a child but that he had not seen her for at least six years. He said she had a tough childhood after her mother died at a young age and apparently was usually kept inside the house as she grew up. At one time the woman worked for a long-term care facility, he said, but he did not know what kind of work she did there. "It really doesn't surprise me," Ellis said. "What surprises me is somebody wasn't called in a bit earlier." |
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I'm About to be a Good Deal Poorer
Saturday, March 8, 2008
Starting the fifteenth of this month I shall be moving into a townhouse and begin living independent of my parents. In place that dependency, I will rely on three roommates. These chaps are good friends of mine, so this move will make hanging out much more convenient.. Although two of them spend most of their free time in my family's basement anyways.
The third roommate is the safety net for this whole farce of adulthood. His father died pretty recently and he was left with a nice chunk of change. The idea is that we all pay for everything without tapping his money (well, he'll be buying a 58" plasma TV for the common room, but that'll be his own thing that we get to reap the benefits of), but it's nice to have that just-in-case in place.
Now I have to drastically change my eating habits. I've been in this habit of spending over ten dollars a day on food, which is something I won't be able to do anymore. I'm gonna have to learn how to buy groceries for a week or so and get in a groove of preparing it at the right time.
Something else I did to get ready for this move is to buy insurance. I feel pretty good about it. I did some digging around and I got some decent renters insurance ($137) for the year, and I get All Peril coverage on my computers!
I was especially happy with my car insurance which is going to run me eighty bucks a month, where the other guys wanted $125-ish. And the cheaper rate had the better coverage and just-as-good deductibles!
I also called Verizon and we're scheduled to have our FiOS internet and TV ready for us a day after we move in... They said they could come the day we move in, but they said that they'd be there anywhere between 8 AM to 5 PM. Say what? I didn't know how often we were going to have people there, so I pushed it back a day...
My folks still only live ten minutes away, so the internet isn't that far away if withdrawal gets the best of me.
It's kinda funny because some people ask me if I was excited, expecting that I am. And I'm not. Honestly, not much will change except I'll have much less money and it'll be much easier to have LAN parties.
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Anyone Know How to Care For Baby Mice?
Friday, March 7, 2008
Okay, so I'm at work when I see my boss looking at the pile of dirt he just swept up.
"My pile is crawling away...", he says.
I walk up to see that he apparently swept up a mouse nest. The were a few, staggeringly cute baby mice in there trying to figure out what was going on. My boss carries on and sweeps the pile further.
I'm about to walk away, but I consider the pile more-- I know what's going to happen to that pile. It will be put in a bin, then the contents of the bin will be dumped into the trash compactor. Knowing their fate, one they're helpless to change, I felt like I should do something. After all, in the grand scheme of things, their lives aren't worth less than my own.
So I took their nesting fluff and put it in to the box, then is sifted through the pile for all the little ones... I found seven or so.. Three of them were still pink and the rest had fur and were more mobile. None of them had their eyes opened, though.
And so now I have them at home trying to figure out what to do with them. At first I thought I might bury the box in grass clippings, hoping it would keep them warm.. I'd drop some bread in it and hopefully, soon, they'll be big enough to chew their way out of the box.
Then I became pretty sure those pink ones still needed milk. I remembered from when I was a kid, we got chicks to drink water by holding a soaked cotton ball to their face.. So I tried soaking a bit of paper towel in milk.. I don't know if cow milk would work, even if they would suck it out of the paper towel.
I hope the bigger ones can do more solid foods. We're apparently out of bread, so I crumbled some Honey-Nut Cheerios in the box as well.
So far, there doesn't seem to be any interest in anything I put in there.
I put a heating pad under the box to help keep them warm.
Still, I now find myself asking, is it better to starve to death, or get squished?
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